‘Eat Right to Play Right’ Community Programme Gets An Extra Boost With New Partnerships And Additional Funding

September 02, 2018

I am glad to be invited to attend Zurich Malaysia’s long-term integrated community programme – ‘Eat Right to Play Right’ (ERTPR) – aims to step up its commitment to promote the wellbeing of children with the formation of strategic partnerships with sporting bodies Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) and Malaysia Connecting Communities (MCC), as well as leading hypermarket chain Mydin Malaysia. ERTPR was established in 2016 in partnership with local non-governmental organization, One Goal Malaysia (OGM) to tackle child malnutrition issues by educating children on the importance of nutrition and healthy eating, as well as to encourage physical activity and good sportsmanship, by using grassroots football as a platform. I find ERTPR able to create awareness and at the same time inject the interest to the children to learn the important of nutrition and physical activities.

The announcement took place at Wisma FAM in Kelana Jaya, and was attended by Dato’ Haji Hamidin, President of FAM; Stuart Ramalingam, General-Secretary of FAM; Terry Leong of World Vision Malaysia and spokesperson for OGM; and Sabariah Mohd, Head of Marketing and Brand Communications for Mydin Malaysia. Also present to witness the event were Mark Heasman, Senior Programme Manager of Z Zurich Foundation.

Speaking at the event was Philip Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Zurich Life Insurance Malaysia Berhad, who explained Zurich Malaysia’s commitment in developing sustainable initiatives that create lasting, positive impact for the society. “At Zurich, sustainability underpins everything that we do; whether it is in designing innovative solutions for our customers or investing our resources for the betterment of the local communities in which we live and work. The ERTPR programme reflects our long-term commitment to help improve the wellbeing of children in Malaysia and we are very pleased to work with our strategic partners to elevate its reach and awareness to more communities across the country.”

As the ERTPR programme crosses the mid-term mark of its initial duration of four (4) years, Z Zurich Foundation has committed an additional grant of approximately RM9 million; bringing the total grant for the programme to RM13 million. The grant will enable the extension of the ERTPR programme to six (6) years (ending in 2021) and the implementation of on-ground activations and events to drive mass awareness and interest in the programme.

Upcoming initiatives include:
1. State Youth Football Tournament, which is open to football clubs and communities with players between the ages of seven (7) and 14 years. Participants will have the opportunity to participate in nutrition-based games and activities;

2. Youth League Partnership with MCC, of which participants of the league will be educated on the importance of nutrition and healthy eating habits;

3. Supermarket Partnership with Mydin Malaysia, through roadshows and on-ground activations; and

4. Football Sports KOL Engagement and Content Seeding

“Through sustained grassroots football engagements over the last two and a half years, we have seen positive improvements in the ERTPR communities. For instance, our assessments showed that 48.1% of children have increased their understanding about nutrition after participating in the ERTPR programme. Hence, we are extremely delighted to note that the programme has now been extended to six years. With this, we will be able to engage more communities to advocate proper nutrition and healthy lifestyles for children.” said Terry Leong, spokesperson for OGM.

Since its inception, the ERTPR programme has trained approximately 240 community coaches and reached more than 3,000 children across Kedah, Perlis, Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Sabah and Sarawak. By the end of 2021, more than 5,000 children across 260 active communities are expected to have benefited from the ERTPR programme.